Rather, he had been brusque and pessimistic. “Azarel has pointed out over and over that it was humans and vampires who opened the Blood Stone in the first place, so all this trouble with the Summanus is our own fault and we have to live with it. He’s right, too. Stamping your foot and whining about it being unfair won’t move them.”
“Oh, I have something better than whining in mind,” Rory told him.
Roman shrugged. “It’s your funeral. They don’t like having their time wasted and tend to demonstrate that preference physically.” He had gone away to arrange her call.
The entire household, including the children and all the guards except for a skeleton crew left to protect the house, had travelled in a phalanx of cars up to the natural arena in the Santa Monica mountains, barely two hours after Rory had spoken to Roman.
There had already been people waiting. Those who lived closer by had arrived first, in response to frantic text messages sent out over the hunter networks and were sitting, lying and pacing, waiting for their arrival. More came after them, filing into the bowl like moving shadows. The moon set while they were waiting for the last of them. Conversations, most of them low and sleepy, filled the cool late night air.
Rory could feel the sun approaching the horizon, her oldest instincts speaking silently. She glanced at Roman. He nodded and went back to where Nial and Sebastian stood together, their shoulders touching. Neither of them was speaking. Shock still gripped them.
Roman touched Nial’s shoulder.
Nial stepped into the clear space in the middle of the arena and looked upward. “Serene Ones!” His voice was strained. He paused and cleared his throat. “Serene Ones! Hear us! We demand to speak to you. An injustice has been done that demands correcting!”
The arena fell silent as he spoke. Everyone turned to face him. Rory saw Kate shift Lini in her arms, resettling her head. The child was deeply asleep. Blythe’s three teenagers were standing in front of Blythe and Patrick. Efraim and Kimball were farther away, disassociated from Nial’s people. They were still feeling their guilt and shame. Everyone was here, though.
The one face she had not spotted among the crowd was Azarel, which supported her theory.
“Call again,” she told Nial in an undertone. “If we keep knocking, they will have to answer just to rid themselves of us.”
“Serene Ones! Hear us! Speak to us!” Nial called. “We demand justice!”
“Justice is an artificial construct designed to placate the aggrieved.” The voice was feminine and beautifully modulated. “As you say yourselves, life is not fair.”
Rory turned to look in the direction of the voice. There was a woman standing within the cleared space. Rory should have seen her arrive, because she had been looking directly at the clearing. Yet she had to turn her head to locate her. Serene One tricks?
The brunette woman looked perfectly human, while her skin held a glow and a perfection that said she was not human. So did the way her feet didn’t quite touch the ground. She looked at Nial enquiringly.
Nial inclined his head in a shortened bow. “Thank you for speaking with us.”
“You humans, with your demands and your concepts, have provided us amusement, lately. We will listen.”
Nial lifted his hand up toward Rory. “One among us would speak on behalf of all of us. This is Rory Rafferty.”
The woman looked at her. “Rory Rafferty is known to us.”
Rory shivered. Would her past be held against her now? Yet there was no point in hesitating or second guessing. They were committed now. “If you know who I am, then you know what I am good at. My expertise.”
“Your skill with games and chance is understood. Your work with particles is adequate. Go on.”
Rory blinked. She had called the leading edge of quantum physics merely adequate. How much did they know about the universe that humans did not? Perhaps a lot more. Arthur C. Clarke had once said that any sufficiently advanced civilization would appear magical to primitives. Perhaps humans were the primitives here.
Rory marshalled her arguments, ignoring the doubt gnawing at her middle. “Nearly a year ago, you sent one of you among us, to learn what it is to be human not merely by observation, but by experience.”
The Serene One inclined her head. “The representative you called Azarel is not among you.”
“Because he’s hiding from us,” Roman growled.
“We can amend that,” the woman said.
This time, Rory saw the materialization. Perhaps because Azarel was inside a human body, his appearance was clumsy and slow. He was unshaved, his eyes red and bleary. His hair was tangled and his shirt rumpled. He was barefoot.
When he saw where he was, he sank to his knees and hung his head.
The Serene One studied him curiously. “This one has failed to report his activities to us for some time. I can see there might be a reason for that.”
Rory moved so that she was standing in the clear space. It was getting crowded now, with five of them there. Her movement drew the Serene One’s gaze, as Rory had intended.
“Azarel was supposed to learn about being human so that your kind would understand the impact of the breaking of the Blood Stone, to better decide what to do about the Summanus and the Elah.”
“The Ĉiela were also within the void,” the Serene One pointed out.
Void. Rory wondered if the Blood Stone had merely been a portal to another dimension and that was where the three races had been shoved when they had been removed from the world.
“The Ĉiela are all but gone from this world, now,” Rory replied. “You have seen their demise just as we have. The Elah are allies. They have learned the lesson you are trying to understand. They are willing to work with humans, instead of fighting them for limited resources. Their enfolding into human affairs has enhanced both species.”
“Rory Rafferty speaks truly on this,” Koca added, from just behind Nial.
“That just leaves the Summanus,” Rory finished. “Which is why we are here.”
“We cannot adjust the course of human affairs,” the Serene One replied.
“Except that you have already interfered with human affairs, to our detriment,” Rory shot back.
The woman blinked. “That is not possible.”
“No? Then you need to speak with Azarel. With any of us.” Rory threw her hand out, pointing at the bent man on the ground. “He bargained with the Summanus. He traded a most deadly weapon in exchange for someone dear to him.”
The Serene One looked doubtful. Rory wondered how long it had been since the Serene Ones had been anything other than completely sure of themselves.
“You speak of love,” the woman said slowly, looking at Azarel. “Is this true? You love a human?”
Azarel put his face in his hands. “Yes,” he said hoarsely. “I wanted her back.”
The Serene One hesitated. Then her shoulders shifted in the slightest of shrugs. “Such is the course of affairs in war. This is a war of your own design. We still see no reason to interfere.”
“Except that Azarel cheated!” Rory cried.
Roman drew in a sharp breath. Even Nial lifted his head to stare at Rory with an expression that might have been horror. She could almost hear his thoughts.
This is your play?
This was her play. From everything she had heard about the Serene Ones and their ways, she judged that this would work. It had to work. It was the only way humans, Elah and vampires would survive.
Her heart thudded unevenly as Rory waited for the Serene One to respond.
The woman’s eyes narrowed. “We understand that what Azarel has done is considered unfair by humans. He betrayed most of you to preserve just one of you, when the preferred action is to work for the greater good. Yet, these things happen in your wars. Look to your world history. Look to your own history, Rory Rafferty. Life has not been fair to you, either. You have never complained about that until now.”
“I am not complaining about injustice
and unfairness, Serene One,” Rory said calmly. “Indeed, I can understand why Azarel has acted the way he did, even if I cannot condone what he has done. That is not my point.”
The Serene One tilted her head. “Make your point.”
Rory inclined her head. “As quickly as I can. Everything that has happened in this war against the Summanus has happened because one of the most ancient ones you left upon the Earth to guard humans did not guard them at all. He unleashed the Blood Stone. That could be considered a breaking of rules, only you chose to call it hubris, punished the individual and let events continue to play out as they will. Very well. Humans accepted that decision and tried to deal with the consequences of the opening of the Blood Stone as well as they could. They have accepted vampires among them and are now learning to embrace Elah, too.” She pointed to Kate and Lini and to Koca.
The woman didn’t look away from Rory.
Rory understood that she could not stretch the Serene One’s patience much longer. “Azarel has spent a year learning about humans. Being human, to the full depth and richness that implies. He has even learned to love a human. He could have been the perfect medium to enhance your own understanding, except that he chose to change the course of natural affairs to suit him and him alone.”
“By bargaining with the Summanus?” the woman asked, demonstrating that she was following Rory’s chain of reasoning.
“Yes.”
“Yet you have already acknowledged that this is a natural outcome, one that must be borne.”
“Only it was not natural in the slightest,” Rory insisted. “The Summanus do not speak language as humans, Elah or vampires understand it. Not even a type of language that we might learn to use to communicate with them. They share thoughts, directly and collectively. There was only one human who might have eventually learned how to speak to the Summanus. He was lost to us as a direct result of Azarel’s interference.”
“We are aware of Dominic Castellano,” the Serene One said.
Rory shook her head. The Serene One still hadn’t understood. “Let me put it this way,” she said quickly. “In order to speak to the Summanus in any way at all, Azarel had to put aside his human stature and use the abilities of a Serene One. As soon as he did that, he moved himself outside the natural order of affairs. Everything that has happened since then is a direct result of his interference as a Serene One. The deaths, the explosions and the very near loss of a whole city. People died to save this city who would not have died if events had been allowed to proceed naturally.”
Sebastian sighed. It was a heavy sound, full of grief.
Everyone standing around them stirred. There were whispers. Shuffled feet. Rory’s argument had resonated with them.
Azarel kept his head down.
The Serene One looked at him again. “Is this true, Azarel? You…cheated?”
Rory fought not to show any of the hope that had welled up inside her. The Serene One had separated herself from Azarel by using his individual name. She had spoken of cheating. She had listened and understood the implications.
Azarel lifted his head. “I wanted Francesca back.”
The Serene One’s face worked. Rory saw horror there. Disgust.
“Don’t hurt him! Don’t!” Francesca struggled to move through the crowd, pushing and shoving her way into the clearing. She stumbled and threw out her hands, but not to save herself. She was protecting Azarel. Francesca put herself between him and the Serene One and spread her arms. “Leave him alone.”
“Francesca, no.” Azarel got hastily to his feet. “They don’t care about you. They’ll kill you to reach me.”
The woman tilted her head again, studying Francesca. “She knows that,” she said slowly. Wonderingly.
Francesca backed up, until she bumped up against Azarel. She lifted her chin, returning the stare.
The woman looked at Rory. “Events have happened that should not have happened. They would not have happened if we had stayed removed and let life take its course.”
“That was my point,” Rory replied. “When you created the Blood Stone, ten thousand years ago, you gave humans a chance to thrive. You have seen for yourself the results of that opportunity. Humans indulge in petty wars, it is true. Yet they are capable of great achievements and great love.”
“Yes,” the woman said, her voice mellow with agreement.
“Now, humans face extinction. The Summanus will win, because their numbers are so great. All that humans have achieved will vanish.”
The Serene One looked at Azarel. His arm was around Francesca, protecting her. “You are lost to us,” she said shortly. “You have broken the primary principals of the Serene Ones.”
Azarel inclined his head. “As those principals make no allowance for love, I find the loss of no great burden to me.”
“You will become completely the human you have learned to be. You may live to regret that.” The woman looked back at Rory. “Let it not be said that we are incapable of learning, even from lesser creatures such as yourselves. To demonstrate that learning, we offer something we have never offered before.”
“And that would be?” Rory asked.
“An apology.”
As everyone in the arena stirred in reaction, the woman smiled. “We would prefer humans continue to provide novelty and change. We will remove the stains of our mismanagement and ourselves, too. You will not reach us again. To allow that would be to invite another error and that cannot be tolerated.”
She inclined her head as her flesh, then her whole body, glowed and shone. The brilliance increased until Rory had to throw up her arm to protect her eyes.
Then the light disappeared.
Rory blinked, trying to regain her sight as quickly as possible.
“Dominic!” Francesca cried.
Suddenly the arena was filled with cries and shouts and babbling laughter and joy.
Rory lowered her arm.
Dominic was squashed between Patrick and Blythe and their three children, who were all trying to touch him, while Francesca stood watching, with tears in her eyes.
Rory sucked in her breath and turned to where Nial had been standing. Winter was there, her face hidden against his shoulder, while Sebastian tried to pull her out of Nial’s arms and into his own. Then he gave up and hugged both of them.
All over the arena, people were holding returned loved ones.
Rory turned to find Marcus and Ilaria, holding her breath.
There was as tall, dark-haired man with them now. Ilaria had jumped into his arms and had her legs wrapped around his middle as she peppered him with kisses, while Marcus waited his turn, his hand on Rick’s arm, his eyes glittering with tears.
Dante slid his arm through Rory’s. “You did it,” he murmured. He was smiling.
Sasha turned to look at them. “This will be happening everywhere, yes? All over the world?”
“Yes, I think so,” Rory replied. “They said they were going to remove the stain of their mismanagement. I think that means they’ve reverted everything to the way it was before the Blood Stone was opened.”
“Except the Elah are still here,” Sasha said, pointing to where Koca stood talking quietly to Kate, Garrett and Roman.
“The Serene Ones are more human than they think,” Rory said slowly.
“How so?” Dante asked.
“They kept all the interesting bits and got rid of the rest.”
“Nial! Nathanial!” The cry went up from the edge of the arena, picked up by a dozen voices.
A path cleared for them and Nial kept Winter under his arm as he walked the path. Rory followed, Dante and Sasha keeping pace with her.
At the very edge of the natural arena, there was a shelf of rock carved into the hillside. Sitting on the shelf was a large, oblong stone, with very square and even sides, so perfectly formed that it looked as though the stone had been manufactured, not carved from rock.
The top of the stone was covered in carved writing that Rory didn’t re
cognize. The stone itself was smoking. Heat baked her middle when she drew near, so she stepped back away from it, her heart squeezing again.
“Another Blood Stone,” Winter whispered. Everyone heard her, though, because the arena had fallen unnaturally silent.
“With just the Summanus in it,” Kate said. “Perhaps it should have been that way all along.” She hugged the child in her arms.
Nial reached out and held his hand over the stone. “This time, we won’t repeat mistakes, either. This time, we get to be smarter.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
An armada of ships escorted the nearly empty container ship, renamed the WS Victory in honor of the role it was playing, on the journey from California to the western edge of the North Pacific Ocean. It carried only one piece of cargo.
Once the world had celebrated victory, more sober consideration for the future had set in. Following the suggestions of Nial and other senior vampires, the new Blood Stone was encased in three foot thick reinforced concrete and the concrete wrapped with titanium. The titanium was sealed against corrosion with a thick layer of porcelain. Baked into the porcelain were warnings against breaking the stone, written in nearly every language of man, including mathematics.
The heavy container was then hoisted onto the cargo ship, which set sail for the Marianas Trench, accompanied by twenty nine cruise ships and freighters, carrying spectators, world authorities, journalists and film crews and anyone who could beg a berth.
Nial and those he included in his extended family had been given berths upon the Victory itself. When the Victory arrived over the deepest part of the world’s oceans and the accompanying ships hovered nearby, everyone gathered on the long empty deck of the Victory, to watch as the Blood Stone was winched up into the air. The crane swiveled to bring it over the side of the ship.
As had been agreed, no words were spoken. No speeches were made. Politics had been put aside and for this one moment, the world watched with a single uniting hope in their hearts that the Summanus would never again terrorize humans.
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